In January, the New York Times published the results of one of its “Opinion Page Focus Groups.” This weekly feature brings together “subsets of Americans and explore assumptions that others might have — digging deeper into them, challenging them, in some cases stamping out stereotypes.” This focus group was made up of 11 law enforcement officers from a variety of cultural, ethnic, and political backgrounds who talked about their concerns as police officers in society and their thoughts about how to bridge the abyss between law enforcement and the public. Patrick Healy, deputy Opinion Page editor, said of the group, “They seemed, if anything, to want more dialogue with people and to have a chance to overcome assumptions. ‘Instead of trying to call me and my co-workers out, call us in,’ said one of the focus group participants, a police officer who described himself as a Republican from a mixed-race background. ‘Call us into your small groups. Call us into your city council meetings. Call us into the meetings that really matter, where the transparency takes place.’”
In my long career in community journalism, I’ve had many opportunities to cover local police agencies and the crimes that are typical of places like Tecumseh. Police reports usually are peppered with drunk driving arrests, breaking and entering, disorderly conduct or domestic assault. Officers regularly patrol the downtown, checking that doors are secured and keeping an eye out for anything out of the ordinary. Police in small communities wear a variety of hats–they may be on traffic detail, ticketing drivers for speeding, running a stop sign, distracted or impaired driving, or driving without a valid license. Officers do welfare checks, they patrol neighborhoods, they conduct safety programs for youth. In a place like Tecumseh, officers are involved with the community and take the “serve and protect” motto to heart.
But even with their efforts to serve and protect, there are a few folks who, for whatever reasons, will randomly flip off police officers, something I was surprised to learn. I was curious whether this is a common experience for local police. Tecumseh Police Chief Brett Coker confirmed that it was not uncommon for Tecumseh officers to be “flipped off” by drivers.
“But we get a lot more ‘waves’ than we get flipped off,” he said.
Raisin Township Chief Kevin Grayer concurred.
“We do get our share of people randomly flipping us off,” he said. “But I think we get more ‘waves.'”
The instances of random rude behavior are annoying but Grayer said he “takes it with a grain of salt.
“I don’t retaliate,” he said.
Instead, he works to do more in the realm of community policing.
“A lot of times, I’ll be driving through a subdivision and I’ll stop and talk with kids and their parents,” he said. “I think it goes a long way toward better communication with the public and for people to get to know us and know we’re here for them.”
After I learned that police officers are on the receiving end of the random “bird” gesture, and believing I needed to be a more supportive citizen, I decided to start waving at officers if I happened to pass them on the road. I don’t pass them too often, but Monday afternoon, I was sitting at the light at Occidental and Russell Road, waiting for the green arrow. A Tecumseh patrol car came up beside me, waiting to make a left turn. I started waving, rather like a maniac, but the car was at the stop bar in the left lane, which is a few feet behind the stop bar on the right lane. He was too far back to see me waving like a fool.
Hopefully, no one else saw me, either.
Read the full NYT article here: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/01/03/opinion/law-enforcement-focus-group.html
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